Nintendo Keeping their System Sellers in the Spotlight via DLC?

In the "Six Months Financial Results Briefing for Fiscal Year Ending March 2019" (see here), Nintendo's new President Shuntaro Furukawa had the following to say about system sellers:

Titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Mario Odyssey are what we call “hardware drivers” in that consumers are very often interested in buying these titles when making a new hardware purchase. Titles released already in the previous fiscal years remain capable of driving hardware sales. The key is to figure out what makes these titles appealing, and how we can get consumers to understand that appeal. Going forward, we plan to incorporate add-on content and other factors that will keep these titles in the spotlight, so they will continue to sell alongside the hardware.

We take the value of software very seriously. What we want with our evergreen titles is to maintain their values as long as possible without lowering the prices.

Well, Furukawa is certainly right that Nintendo has some strong system selling titles like Breath of the Wild, which keep selling the hardware. And in general it is a good idea to keep their strong titles in the spotlight by any means possible, so that they stay in the media. Adding some content updates once in a while is a good method and lets the players keep coming back to the game, where as a result people are talking about it.

While this would be a good approach, Nintendo is hardly a company to follow it. If they keep updating one of their games for over a year, ideally even with some free content like it's the case for Splatoon 2 or Super Mario Odyssey, then this is already truly something special and out of the ordinary for Nintendo. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe would be a title, where they could add so many different things per DLC, but which so far only got two major updates: one to support Nintendo Labo (lame) and the other was the Breath of the Wild content.

Speaking of Breath of the Wild, Nintendo is absolutely done with the game and so am I. I've done everything there is to achieve in the Wii U version and the only reason to boot the game again would be some updates. It doesn't have to be major DLC Packs - even small stuff counts, like in version 1.3.3, where they've added the Salvage Gear as a promotion for Xenoblade Chronicles 2. They could have kept adding armor to the game (and ideally fixed the armor limit along with it) and keep Breath of the Wild in the news that way, like they do for Super Mario Odyssey with its outfits.

And they probably would have, if it wasn't for the Wii U version. Nintendo most likely doesn't want to do anything for the Wii U anymore, where the Wii U version of Breath of the Wild now is in the way of any more updates. But maybe they'll do it with the next Zelda game, which may come to the Switch alone.

But overall Nintendo has a history of disappointing me by not updating their games in some form...

• Tri Force Heroes never got to see the rest of its six planned DLC outfits.
• They never made a 30th character for Hyrule Warriors, even though the roster obviously lacks a slot, nor made the promotional My Fairy Costumes in Hyrule Warriors: Legends available to everyone.
• They never increased the armor limit in Breath of the Wild, nor fixed the unobtainable treasure chests.

Of course Nintendo (or Koei Tecmo in case of Hyrule Warriors) wasn't entitled to do any of this, but it still would have been things to either keep the games in the spotlight or to improve them. But they didn't care (enough).

Now, the next big game, where Nintendo will most likely disappoint on that end, will be Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. They have announced five DLC Packs that come with a fighter, a stage and some music. And knowing Nintendo, this will most likely be all there is, while they could do so much more to keep the game interesting, like releasing additional stages and Echo Fighters or providing us with a Stage Builder. But they probably won't...